[EM] Alexander Praetorius, regarding Frome, U.K.

[Fred Gohlke]

Good Afternoon, Alexander

We know our views differ.  These comments are a different way of looking 
at some of the topics you raised.

To the best of my knowledge, in the so-called 'democracies' that 
presently exist, votes are cast by human individuals.  I know of no 
instance where votes are cast by money.  We know that money can be used 
to buy votes but that does not move us closer to democracy than we are 
at present.  Quite the reverse.

Using money to buy hula hoops is certainly one way of voting with money, 
but it has drawbacks.  For one, it tends to lead to 'conspicuous 
consumption' by those who exploit the system better than their peers. 
For another, it is not available to those who need their resources to 
feed their families; those who "work for cheap under horrible conditions".

You say, "The FAKE BULLSHIT (you describe) has to disolve.", but you 
don't explain its failings.  I've seen many such assertions, but never 
one that provided an explanation of what is wrong with the system or why 
it failed.  Without knowing and understanding why it failed, it is 
impossible to improve upon it.

Existing pseudo-democratic political systems fail because they treat the 
people like children whose Mommy gives them a choice between Corn Flakes 
or Wheaties for breakfast.  Political parties, acting like Mommies, tell 
the people what political choices they can make.

Over the past one hundred years, the explosion of mass communications 
and the application of behavioral science have given party politics a 
stranglehold on the people.  They have robbed the people of their right 
to govern themselves.  Instead, as many have known for years and 
researchers at Princeton and Northwestern are starting to learn, even 
America has turned into an oligarchy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/21/americas-oligarchy-not-democracy-or-republic-unive/#ixzz3ftXIhT7n

The oligarchs who control the psuedo-democracies maintain their power by 
the most basic rule of success:  Divide and Conquer.  In the United 
States, they use two political parties to divide the people and control 
the government.  Other countries claim to be 'more democratic' because 
they introduce more parties.  They're not.

Political parties are divisive by definition.  They do not seek to serve 
the common interest; they seek to assert the interests of a select few. 
  They do not improve democracy, they empower a relatively radical 
portion of the electorate at the expense of the common interest.

Any system that lets small groups of people decide who can be a 
candidate for public office and raise immense amounts of money to peddle 
their candidate to the public is flawed.  The only product the parties 
have have to sell is the laws their candidates enact and that creates a 
conflict of interest that has tragic consequences for the people.

It need not be so.  There is no shortage of people among us with the wit 
and wisdom to resolve adversarial issues in the public interest.  What 
we lack is a means of identifying them and raising them to leadership 
positions.

It is unfortunate that the many bright and thoughtful people who post on 
this site do not think it worthwhile to help the Frome Town Council find 
a way for every member of the community to help decide which of their 
peers are the most attuned to the needs of the community and have the 
qualities required to advocate the common good.

Fred Gohlke